Engineering Geology Concepts

 What is Engineering Geology?  History of Engineering Geology  What are the importance of Engineering Geology?  Scope of Studies

Geology - is the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It includes the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet.

Engineering Geology - branch of geology that studies the upper horizons of the earth’s crust and the dynamics of the crust in relation to human engineering and construction activity. - considers the composition, structure, texture, and properties of rocks as soil

- It develops forecasts of the processes and phenomena that occur when structures interact with environment,and it offers possible ways of influencing the processes in order to eliminate their harmful effects.

History of Engineering Geology

 The First book entitled Engineering Geology was published in 1880 by William Penning  The first American Engineering Geology textbook was written in 1914 by Ries and Watson

 The need for geologist on engineering works gained world wide atention in 1928 with the failure of the St. Francis Dam in California and the loss of 426 lives.  More engineering failures which occurred the following years also prompted the requirements for engineering geologists to work on large engineering projects.

Importance of Engineering Geology

 Provides a systematic knowledge of construction material, its occurrence, composition, durability and other properties. Example of Construction Materials: building stones, road metal, clay, limestones and laterite.

 The stability of civil engineering structure is considerably increased if the geological feature like faults, joints, bedding planes, folding solution channels etc. in the rock beds are properly located and suitably treated.

 The foundation problems of dams, bridges and buildings are directly concerned with the geology of the area where they are to be built. In these works drilling is commonly undertaken to explore the ground conditions. Geology helps greatly in interpreting the drilling data.

Scope of Studies: for residential, commercial and industrial developments for footing and foundation for earthquake engineering for mine and quarry developments, mine tailing dam, mine reclamation and mine tunneling. for government, commercial, or industrial hazardous waste remediation sites. for other types of facilities.